I think my very favorite books

of this past year or so have been the Australian crime writer Peter Temple's; they fit perfectly with my aesthetic (here's my most recent post on the subject, with links to previous ones as well). I've been hampered in my efforts to recommend them, though, by the fact of their being published only in Australia. But now--drumroll...--MacAdam/Cage have published the first two books in the Jack Irish series in the US. Seriously, if you have any affinity whatsoever for crime fiction, or if you just appreciate a great prose style, order yourself a copy of Bad Debts and I defy you not to fall a little bit in love with the voice & the Australian vocabulary & the sensibility and order the next one immediately (it's Black Tide). If there was any justice in the world, this guy would already be known as a fitting successor to Dick Francis and be selling millions of copies and winning lots of prizes here. Meanwhile, go and read!